Who’s your dad?

Chapter 2

“What?”

“Um mam ma. Um ma, um mam ma.”

I didn’t know if she was saying mamma. I didn’t know what to make of this kid who was looking straight at me and sounding vaguely like I am her mom.

“Ugh… this is crazy, seriously.”

Louisette’s child.

Miss Valerie.

I read and reread the letter. It’s not like by scrutinizing it repeatedly, I could decipher the identity of the person who wrote it.

But if I pretended not to know, I feared that whoever had brought the child here knew exactly who I was, which meant that at the very least, he or she knew exactly who I had run away from.

“No, but not this. Baby, if you stay here, your real mom, the one who brought you here, will come.”

Surely they wouldn’t have left a baby like this alone. They might have left the baby, knocked on the door, and hid nearby to gauge my reaction.

I took only the letter with Celestine’s name and covered the basket with the blanket again.

The cute face of the baby disappeared under the blanket.

“Kya, boo-boo.”

Even with the cloth flipped over the face, the baby made giggling sounds, unaware if this was a game or not.

For a moment, I felt like it wasn’t right to leave such a young child like this, but I couldn’t bring a stranger’s baby into the house.

“It was nice to meet you, but let’s not meet again.”

Yeah. I shouldn’t play along with someone’s malicious prank. With that thought in mind, I quickly went inside and closed the door.

Ignoring the baby’s giggling from behind me.

“…The tea must have gone cold by now.”

I took a sip of the already cooled tea. But the relaxed feeling of enjoying its aroma had long vanished.

Five minutes later.

I wasn’t going to close the door and leave until she was gone, but after five minutes, I couldn’t help but open the door wide and pick up the teary-eyed baby.

“Waaaah!”

“I’m going crazy.”

The baby, who had joyfully waved its hands just until I closed the door, was now in tears, apparently frightened by the five minutes left alone.

When I hugged the baby, who had been crying with all its might for the house to leave, the crying stopped as if asking when it had cried and started to smile brightly.

“Giggle, giggle. Kya!”

That’s when I sensed it.

My comfortable and cozy rural solo life had come to an end.

***

I have no family.

I didn’t have one before, and I won’t have one in the future.

Parents? I’ve never seen their faces since I was born, and I don’t even know if they’re alive.

When I say I have no family, people initially look surprised, then their faces mix with sympathy.

“Without parents, how did you manage?” They threw comforting words that didn’t resonate with me, saying it must have been tough and lonely.

Tough and lonely? Well, I didn’t particularly miss parents whose faces I didn’t even know.

Feeling a sense of loss due to someone’s absence was only possible when there were memories of being together. People like me, who had no memories of family whatsoever, didn’t know what it meant to miss them.

So, being alone since I was very young became familiar to me.

It was truly sad that a child not even ten years old could get used to being alone without parents.

If I had parents, I thought while enduring unnecessary harsh words and cold stares, that it would be nice to have a real family.

I also wanted a real family.

But I really, really didn’t know it would turn out like this.

“Ah boo, boo.”

“Sure enough. This child is indeed the madam’s baby. No, it’s the mistress’s child.”

“…Is that so?”

Muttering to myself with a serious expression, I looked at the man in front of me.

“I haven’t been married. Moreover, this is the first time I’ve seen this child. How can this be my baby?”

“I’m not sure about the madam’s past, but it’s been proven that this child shares blood with the madam.”

“…I asked you to find out who abandoned the baby in front of our door. Not to confirm paternity.”

Maybe I should have just gone to the police. My head was pounding.

Bringing the baby inside when it cried was the first step, but what to do next was the problem. It wasn’t my place to just take care of a stranger’s child, especially when I didn’t even know who the parents were.

I don’t know who left the baby on the doorstep, but I don’t think anyone is going to be convinced by a letter saying, “We’re going to return the baby.

The best option would be to find the real parents through the police, but I couldn’t act rashly because the letter addressed me directly.

Living incognito in a rural village, it wasn’t good to get involved with the police for no reason. After much thought, I decided to trace the child’s identity through a detective agency.

Luckily, I had plenty of money, so without hesitation, I commissioned Alfonso’s Detective Agency, reputed as the best in town, to find and bring the child’s family.

Compared to modern times, it might seem like a private detective agency. People who would do anything for money have always existed. It was a fact, but somehow it felt bitter.

But oddly enough, this nobleman, recognized for his abilities in this rural village, mistakenly concluded that this child was mine. How should I accept this?

“It seems Madame doesn’t understand, so let me explain. This is a magical potion that determines blood relations. When a drop of blood from each of the two test subjects is mixed in here, and if the color becomes transparent… you can determine if they share blood relations. Just like this result.”

The detective shook a flask containing a transparent potion.

“Boo boo.”

So, he pricked my finger once, and the baby’s finger once. Was it to alternate the pricks?

According to the detective, with the increasing cases of child abduction lately, the empire has started a large-scale crackdown. When a child of unknown identity appears, the adult accompanying them becomes a target of investigation…

Perhaps that’s why it seemed like they were trying to determine if this baby and I shared blood relations, with some sort of magical potion or something.

“No, let’s say this child is mine. But how could I, the one who should know, not recognize this child, and be separated for over half a year?”

“I don’t know about that, Madame. All I can tell you is that this child is yours.”

The detective’s expression became more suspicious. It seemed like he thought I was some scheming woman who secretly gave birth and then abandoned the child.

“If you wish, I can inquire about who left the child at your door.”

It seemed like he would reluctantly do it just to satisfy me.

“Um ma, mam ma.”

While exchanging futile conversations with the detective, the baby cooed quietly in my arms.

What on earth is happening? This is truly a baby I’ve never seen before.

The headache around my temples gradually spread throughout my entire head.

The baby seemed to be about a year old. But considering I had only been possessed by Celestine for barely six months, the possibility that Celestine might have secretly given birth and hidden the baby… wasn’t entirely impossible.

In the original work, Celestine was clearly not a mother, let alone married. But since I had already become Celestine, comparing it to the original content was futile.

So, where exactly did the original story go wrong?

“If there’s nothing else you’d like me to do, Madame, I’ll leave you to it. I’m not going to charge you for the consultation, and I’m not going to charge you for the potion either, so you’re going to have to settle down and accept the child.”

As if pushing us out, the detective pushed me and the child out and closed the door. Just before it closed, the detective’s eyes met mine through the gap, as if saying, “You’re a despicable person who abandons their own child.”

No! This isn’t my child, and I’m not the mother! I wanted to say that, but I couldn’t.

“…Unfair.”

Left standing on the street with the baby in my arms, a sense of injustice welled up in my disappointed and helpless heart.

It was unfair to die without enjoying my youth, and it was especially unfair to be possessed by a villainess character with a doomed fate. And to become a mother without ever experiencing love. What could be more unfair than that?

“Unfair!”

“Babba, babba.”

As if echoing my thoughts, the baby cooed cutely. The warm feeling from its small body against my chest slightly, just slightly, eased my sense of injustice.

Yeah, what could you have done wrong? If anyone’s at fault, it’s the adults.

“I wish I had a family.”

Suddenly, a wish that I had silently repeated countless times in my previous life came to mind.

“Mama, mama.”

My child… The pronunciation came out quietly from my lips, sending shivers down my spine. My child. My child!

This isn’t the family I wanted.

I wanted someone who would protect me and hold me, not someone who would hold me accountable!

I screamed inwardly, but it was just a silent cry.

The small child in my arms. No, the baby, who was closer to being a toddler, suddenly appeared and shattered my peaceful and beautiful life.

“What should I do now? Baby, what should I do with you?”

Even though the baby couldn’t answer, I asked aloud to the child in my arms. It was more of a complaint than a question.

Then suddenly, a thought crossed my mind. If there’s a child, doesn’t that mean the child’s father is somewhere too? Unless Celestine is the Virgin Mary, she couldn’t have conceived a child on her own.

“…I need to find the baby’s father.”

I would have to commission the detective again.

To find the baby’s father.